The automatic dishwasher is widely used in homes and restaurants to clean and sanitize table ware. It takes time for a cleaning cycle to complete its run. With the time pressures of modern society, the user of the automatic washer is not going to sit around and wait for the dishwasher to complete its cycle of washing and drying its contents, but rather the user will do other chores, go to work, rest or even go to sleep. Sometime later the user or a third party, such as another member of the user's family (if the washer is installed in a home) or a co-worker (if the dishwasher is installed in a restaurant) will add soiled dishes to those that are clean and will realize too late that the dishes in the washer were clean. Now the entire load of articles needs to be washed again to be sure that they are all clean. This results in aggravation and additional expense in hot water and soap and in lost time. An objective of this invention is to improve dishwashers so as to give a visual and/or an audible indication that the dishes in the washer are clean or soiled and thereby saving energy, soap, water and aggravation that occurs when dirty dishes are co-mingled with those that are clean.
These objectives are achieved as is now described. A washing machine has a cavity which accepts soiled articles, placed on movable racks dispersed in the cavity, and washes them in soapy water or other cleansing liquid, rinses the articles, optionally dries the articles and then holds them in the racks until removed. A typical automatic dishwasher has two racks which can, each, move into and out of the cavity to facilitate unloading clean dishes from the racks and loading soiled dishes into the racks. A water tight door, typically on the front of the machine, provides access to the washing cavity and the racks can move through the door's opening. The machine is provided with means for sensing when the articles to be washed are placed into the machine and when they are subsequently removed. Such a sensing means may be provided by a device which can hold the liquid washing solution until it is emptied by the washer user or by those means, such as a valve which is closed when a lever connected to is held down by a utensil and open when nothing is on the lever connected to the valve. The weight of the utensil would be the determining factor as whether the valve on the device is open or closed.
If this utensil is the last to be removed when the dishes or utensils are clean, the presence of liquid in the tube or device holding the washing solution which fills the device when the machine is washing would show that the dishes within the machine are clean when the device is filled with washing solution and soiled when this device is empty of washing solution. If economy is desired, the presence or absence of solution within the device will tell the user that the dishes are either soiled or clean, however, this will entail having the user to remember what the filled or empty conditions say about the cleanliness of the items with the washer. Words, such as clean or soiled may be placed upon the device at the top and bottom to help in remembering what the presence of absence of solution means as to the condition of the utensils within the washer. If the device holding the solution is transparent and has a floating device, which may be colored, within the device, the presence of a solution will be easier to detect. In order to add the device to washers presently in use the device may be made with a clip or similar aid so that it can be added to present washers. The addition of an electric warning signal might be prohibitive in cost but is certainly not impossible.